St Mary’s Professor Explores Theologies of Liberation in New Book

An academic from the Centre for Religion and History at St Mary’s University, Twickenham has co-edited a book on religion and politics in Palestine called Theologies of Liberation in Palestine-Israel: Indigenous, Contextual, and Postcolonial Perspectives. Prof Nur Masalha, who is also the Programme Director for St Mary’s MA in Religion, Politics and Conflict Resolution, has edited the book with Professor Lisa Isherwood, Director of the Institute of Theological Partnerships at the University of Winchester. The book, which is a collection of essays, explores the Palestinian people’s struggles for justice and liberation. It also suggests new ways of understanding how to be ethical and to live peacefully when visiting the conflicted countries of Palestine and Israel. The book is aimed at scholars, students, policy makers, peace activists and practioners of applied theology and conflict resolution. Prof Masalha said, “This collection of cutting edge essays concerns the development of contextualised theologies of liberation in Palestine-Israel. Contributors include well-known scholars from Muslim, Jewish, Christian, Palestinian-Israeli, American, British and Indian contexts. “The work is innovative because of its inclusion of indigenous and post-colonial perspectives within its remit, and the introduction of new non-denominational concepts such as civil liberation theology.” St Mary’s Centre for Religion and History, in the School of Arts and Humanities, was set up in 2006 with aims to expand history-based projects and promote excellence in research and scholarship on religion, history, culture and memory and encouraging historical research that is critical, innovative and based on a range of sound methodologies.